Ghostly Connections
by Tie-dyed Trickster
Summary: Iruka had already been spending more time with Kakashi because of Naruto. But this isn't enough, at least for the boy in orange goggles Iruka keeps running into. Who is this boy, and what do nature releases and sharingan have to do with it all? Kakairu
1. Falling Branches and a Jutsu

AN: Hiyas! This fic wasn't my idea originally – it was inspired by a really cool doujinshi cover of the same title by Beasiesgal on deviantArt and the summary of the doujinshi underneath it, and she has graciously given me permission to post it here. If you like kakairu, go check out her gallery, it's full of good stuff!

Chapter 1: Falling Branches and a New Use for an Old Jutsu

Iruka was a shinobi school teacher. He was, by definition, extremely good at dodging projectiles of all sorts. But even ninjas can't see everything all the time.

The branch had come off in a storm that had passed through a few weeks ago, but instead of falling to the ground, it had been caught in the branches of other trees and hung there. Waiting.

It was a windy day, and the forest was rustling and whispering to itself as Iruka lead his class through the old trees. The children were also whispering to each other, in excitement. They'd been learning about stealth and concealment and the importance of both to a shinobi for the past month, and now they were finally going to get to put this new knowledge into practise! The class was fairly buzzing with eagerness.

Iruka was also buzzing, though for a different reason. This field trip was an important step in the lessons, but, even if it wasn't the Forest of Death, the woods still held dangers, and it was his job to bring his 20 or so pre-genin back safe and sound. Iruka's sense were on full alert, though he maintained a calm exterior. He didn't want to scare his students by being overly tense.

…not that it was likely that they'd be scared even then. They were pre-genin, after all, and every pre-genin knows, in their heart of hearts, that pre-genin is secretly a rank above ANBU when it comes to ninja skills. On second thought, maybe he _should_ be a bit more tense. A little caution would be a good thing to instil in his students-

A errant rustling in the canopy stopped Iruka's thoughts in their tracks and had his hand on his weapons pouch, his eyes scanning the branches. The pre-genin around him paused. Their senses weren't sharp enough to distinguish an out-of-place rustle in a forest on a windy day yet, but they sure as heck knew how to read their teacher. About half of the class took Iruka's actions as a signal that it was time to begin the lesson and scattered, hiding in the bushes and trees nearby. Most of the rest of the class were uncertain how to interpret Iruka's actions and stayed close, though many rested their hands on the practise kunai or shuriken they had with them. Konohamaru interpreted they signals as a sign that an enemy nin was somewhere nearby and took a defensive stance with a kunai at the ready, holding his ground where he had been standing.

The next thing Konohamaru knew, there was a crashing sound from overhead, and things sped up considerably.

The dead branch, loosened they the wind, gave up its battle with gravity and fell – straight towards Konohamaru.

Iruka, having spotted the branch and seen where it was going to land, bolted forwards and grabbed Konohamaru, then leapt out of the way of the falling branch, shielding his student with his torso.

The branch's leaves were caught by a sudden gust of wind, which was just enough to send it slightly off course.

Iruka landed and set down Konohamaru.

The branch landed, one end of the ground, the other on the back of Iruka's head with a crack.

Iruka's eyes rolled up in his head, and he fell forward onto the ground and didn't move.

There was a moment's stillness, broken only by the rustling of the leaves. Then the pre-genin were crowding around their teacher, though not too closely. One of the earliest lessons at the academy was to not crowd an injured person and make it difficult for the medics to get to them. Whispers of 'sensei?' 'is he okay?' 'is he dead?' 'what do we do?' fluttered through the group.

A much louder voice cut through the panicked murmurings.

"SEXY NO JUTSU!"

The other students turned in shock to Konohamaru, who was picking up his – _her_ – pack and scarf from the ground, pulling a piece of camouflage fabric, tying it around her hips like a skirt, and wrapping the scarf around her breasts. She was just tucking the end of in when the class regained its voice.

"What are you _doing_?"

"This isn't the time-"

"You jerk-"

"SHUT UP!"

Birds flew out of the trees with the force of Konohamaru's bellow. She stood glaring at the rest of her class, hands on hips. "Iruka-sensei needs a doctor! This way I'm big enough to carry him!"

The rest of the class was quiet. There were a few nods in the group.

Udon was the next to speak. "Hanabi-chan should take point," he said firmly, wiping his nose. "She can find the fastest way home."

Everyone turned to look at Hanabi. Hanabi looked back calmly. "Byakugan." One arm rose and pointed. "That way."

Konohamaru nodded. "You lead. Can someone help me get Iruka-sensei on my back?"

It caused quite a stir when a group of pre-genin emerged from the woods with a strange, oddly-dressed woman carrying Umino Iruka on her back and staggering a bit under the weight, led by Hyuuga Hanabi. The woman didn't stop walking, even when the rest of the group halted at the gates. She continued walking with an air about her that the only thing that was going to stop her determined trudge was death. The other students had hurried to catch up with her, leaving one of their number to explain to the confused guards at the gate what was going on. This odd procession continued all the way to the hospital lobby, where the woman walked up to the check-in desk and carefully set Iruka down. She straightened, smiled at the receptionist, turned into a worn-looking Konohamaru, and fell over sideways.

Hanabi stepped over him carefully and looked up at the shocked receptionist seriously. "We would like to arrange for a doctor to see Iruka-sensei. He got hit in the back of the head by a falling tree branch.: She glanced down at Konohamaru. "And if the doctor could look at Konohamaru-kun as well, that might be a good idea."

Well, there's chapter 1. I'm writing this under the impression that Sexy no Jutsu causes an actual physical change in the person using it, rather than being just an illusion – that's the impression I've gotten of it, anyways. I'd also like to mention that, while I have a fair bit of this story written, it's also all hand-written and there's still a ways to go, plus I'm starting a new term of University and I don't know how that will affect my writing. This translates to the fact that updates are, in all likelihood, going to be a bit spaced out – probably at the rate of about one a month. I'm doing this in order to maintain a fairly large buffer of pre-written material, so that, while there will be a long time between chapters, they'll still be posted at regular intervals.

That being said, I beg you to hang in there – the 'ghostly' part will begin in the next chapter!

If a month has come and I haven't posted, give me a poke and I'll fix that.


	2. Visits and Scoldings

**AN: Wow… people are reading this… Anyways, October is here, and, with it, the monthly update, as promised! Thanks to everyone who reviewed – it was greatly appreciated! And, as promised, as of this chapter things are gonna start getting ghostly!**

Chapter 2: In Which Visits Occur, Along With Scolding

Iruka sighed as he made his way to the memorial stone. He'd woken up in the hospital to the news that he had a very minor concussion and that one of his students had somehow managed to get themselves into a state of serious chakra depletion while taking him to the hospital.

It was not one of his happier awakenings.

He'd been kept in the hospital overnight for observation. Konohamaru was still out cold, but the doctor assured him that his student would be fine. Iruka was planning on having a serious refresher course on what to do in emergency situations when he got back, and a private discussion with Konohamaru when the boy woke up. It was commendable that he'd been able to come up with a creative solution for the problem at hand, but pushing his limits to the point of chakra depletion had been a stupid move, especially when the correct course of action would have been to send Hanabi and another student to get help.

Iruka had been released that morning and informed that he had the day off, seriously, don't bother showing up at work, they've been informed, they won't let you do anything. This being the case, he had decided to pay his respects to his mother and father, since he hadn't done so for a while now, and the stone should be deserted at this time of the morning.

His thoughts were interrupted as a flash of orange and dark blue went zipping by him, chanting a litany of "Argh, I'm gonna be late, I thought he was on a _mission_, he's early, stupid midget-teme-"

Then the figure was gone, leaving Iruka blinking in the morning sunlight. He thought he'd seen a red and white fan symbol on the back of the figure's jacket, but that couldn't be right – the kid hadn't looked much younger than Naruto.

Iruka smiled at the thought if his former student. It'd been a couple months since he returned from training with Jiraiya, and Iruka had been enjoying seeing him in the village again.

These thoughts were also interrupted as he came to the training ground with the memorial stone and discovered that someone else was already there.

Iruka wasn't entirely surprised to see Hatake Kakashi standing in front of the stone. He'd come across the man there a couple of times before when he went to pay his respects to his parents. He didn't know who it was that the copy nin spoke to or remembered while at the monument, but he wasn't inclined to ask. He simply waited until the copy nin left before going forward to talk to his parents.

Later, Iruka would look back on this day as the one where everything changed. At that moment, however, he didn't even realize anything was going on.

Xxx

"-could have killed yourself!"

Konohamaru, Udon, Moegi, and Hanabi watched in minor awe and, in Konohamaru's case, minor terror as Iruka stormed a few feet away. Konohamaru had woken up four days after he and Iruka were admitted to the hospital. Iruka had come to visit him, not _intending_ to lecture the boy, but the relief of seeing his student was okay combined with the fear he'd felt ever since he heard that one of his students had almost killed himself getting Iruka to the hospital to form a minor explosion. Fortunately, the pre-genin were fairly certain it was all based on concern rather than actual anger, but even so a raging Iruka-sensei was still scary.

It only lasted for a couple of minutes anyway, and then Iruka was sitting in a chair next to the bed where the four children sat watching him. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, Konohamaru. I shouldn't have yelled at you."

Konohamaru managed to wave his hand airily, as if he were completely unfazed by the previous few minutes. "It's okay, Iruka-sensei. I owe you for saving me from that branch."

Iruka gave him a tired smile. "Just answer me this. Why on _earth_ did you use Sexy no Jutsu to carry me out of the forest?"

Konohamaru shrugged. "We needed to get you to a doctor, and none of us were big enough to carry you. I needed to be taller."

"And the reason you didn't alter the jutsu to include clothes was…?"

Now the young boy squirmed and looked away. "I don't know how…"

Xxx

Iruka left the small group, still laughing together about Konohamaru's needing to improvise clothes, a short while later, relieved that his student was alright, and also pleased to see Hanabi taking an initiative to interact with her peers outside of the academy. He was heading towards the entrance of the hospital when he heard a cry of annoyance from behind him.

Turning, Iruka saw a boy in orange goggles come dancing out of another room, casually trailing a piece of paper in one hand. Behind him came an irritated-looking nurse, who was making snatching motions at the paper. The boy trailed it this way and that as he danced lazily down the hall. Interestingly, the nurse didn't call out to the boy or scold him, and her eyes remained resolutely on the paper in the boy's hands. However, no matter what she did, the boy always tugged the paper away from her hands at the last instant. His eyes were firmly on her, for all that he seemed to be moving randomly, and he was obviously a shinobi of some level, as Iruka could tell he was reading the nurse's movements to keep the paper away, though Iruka didn't recognise him.

After a moment of watching this, the teacher walked forwards a couple of paces and deftly plucked the paper from the boy's hand. The boy turned to stare at him in shock as he handed the paper back to the nurse with a smile.

The nurse gave him a harried grimace in response. "Thanks, Umino-san. Stupid breeze, snatching my chart like that!" she pushed her glasses up her nose a bit and swept a wavy strand of hair behind her ear, huffing in frustration. "_And_ he's had enough time to escape by now, too!" she turned and started back towards the room she'd come out of. "I bet he's _long_ gone by now!"

Iruka turned back to the boy, who was glaring at him with his arms folded. Iruka frowned back. "Don't give me that look."

The boy's eyes widened and he looked from side to side, then pointed at himself when he saw no one else was there.

"Yes, you." Iruka narrowed his eyes as a scream of 'I KNEW IT! F***ING HATAKE-SAN!" resounded from the room the nurse had returned to.

Iruka winced, then glared at the boy. "Look, I appreciate a good prank as much as the next person, but it's dangerous to do them in the hospital – someone could get seriously hurt! I won't report you this time, but I want you to remove whatever genjutsu you put on that nurse and to apologize to her! And I'd better not catch you doing this again, got it?"

The boy nodded dumbly at him.

Iruka nodded back with satisfaction. "Good! Now get going!" and he turned and continued his way out of the hospital, leaving the boy staring after him, a calculating look slowly entering his eyes.

Xxxx

**And that's chapter 2. Hmm, I wonder who that mysterious goggles-wearing youth could be… (dives for cover from rain of thrown objects) Okay, okay, we all know who he is. But I don't think Iruka would have met him before, so for now he's going to remain nameless. Because I can.**

**Also, yes, Hanabi's back! I've grown rather fond of her due to various fanfics, and she's going to be a re-occurring character in the story.**

**And in the next chapter… we will be encountering a rather famous scarecrow.**


	3. A Jutsu and Manipulations

**AN: Hallo, everyone! First off, thanks to everyone who reviewed – getting a review always makes me smile and encourages me to get my rear in gear in regards to getting the next chapter typed up! Second, I wanted to make it known that Rin will not be appearing in this story except for possibly being mentioned in conversation. The only ghost in this story is our mysterious fellow in orange goggles.**

**IMPORTANT, RELATING TO UPDATES AND CHAPTER LENGTH: I just wanted to clear up a possible confusion about the monthly updates thing. I have a large quantity of this story already written, though there is a lot still to write, because I started writing it over the summer. However, it's written in one of my writing books, which means I have to type up each chapter before I post it. This being said, when I started writing this, I was at home, and since then I've returned to university. I'm only doing monthly updates because I don't tend feel inspired to work on fanfiction much while I'm at university and I wanted to ensure that this fic updates steadily, even if that means the updates are slow. This is also why you aren't seeing really long chapters in spite of the long time between updates – I'm working with what I already have, trying to work with where it feels like a natural place to divide the text up into chapters, and ensure that what I have will stretch until I get my fanfic-writing mojo back online. I figured people would prefer it if I made smaller chapters and updated steadily rather than make larger chapters, update six or seven times this autumn, and then not post anything except apologies until May or June.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, there would be homosexual as well as heterosexual pairings.**

Chapter 3: A New Jutsu and Sneaky, Sneaky Manipulation

A few weeks passed. Naruto invited Iruka out to ramen, along with Kakashi, Hinata, and Sakura. Had it been any other boy, the inclusion of two girls would probably have resulted in disaster, but this was Naruto. Okay, so technically that meant that several buildings should have been demolished in the resulting chaos, but he'd grown up some during his time away. He'd explained to both of them ahead of time that he was inviting Sakura because she was his teammate and he wanted to spend some time with the remainder of team 7, and he was inviting Hinata because she was one of his precious people, and that was the main purpose of the meal –to spend some time with his precious people.

It had been a good meal and an enjoyable conversation. Even the stoic Kakashi had deigned to speak a word or two. The most amusing part had been when Hinata casually leaned over and gently blew in Naruto's ear while he was talking. Naruto had turned bright pink and lost his train of thought mid-sentence. It still made Iruka chuckle to think about it. Dating Naruto was definitely proving to be good for Hinata.

Now Iruka was on his way to the memorial stone, or, more exactly, the training ground the memorial stone was located by, to practise his katas for a bit. Though it had not been the main training ground his genin team had used, Iruka had spent a lot of time training there when he was younger, to show his mom and dad what he was learning. It had become a bit of a habit.

Someone else had apparently had the same plan, however. As Iruka got closer he heard the kyups of someone going through their katas, and he arrived just in time to see the goggles-wearing boy from the hospital end a kata in long stance. Iruka watched curiously as the boy continued moving, shooting forward into a short stance, hands clasping in a quick series of seals as he moved, then thrusting two fingers forward as he completed the stance. A short burst of fire shot from his fingers and dissipated into the air.

"That's an interesting jutsu, I don't think I've seen it before."

The boy jumped a foot in the air when Iruka spoke and landed in a defensive stance facing the teacher. His eyes widened a bit when he saw who it was, and he started to babble. "Ah – I knew you were there the whole time, this is just a part of the kata! Also, I thought I saw a spider and-"

Iruka cut him off, laughing. "It's okay, I believe you."

That stopped the boy's babbling _dead_. "You _do_?"

Iruka smiled. "Why shouldn't I There's no reason for you to lie to me."

"Right, of course!" the boy straightened up out of his stance, laughing nervously. "So, what brings you here?"

Iruka politely ignored the abrupt change of topic. "Training, same as you. Even teachers need to work on their katas from time to time. Speaking of which, that was an interesting addition you put at the end of your kata. What jutsu did you use?"

The boy scratched his head. "Eh, thanks. And it doesn't have a name yet – I made it up!"

"So it's new?" Iruka pressed.

The boy shook his head. "I came up with it ages ago – I'm just really bad at coming up with names for things."

Iruka was impressed. The boy couldn't be more than 13, and, while he'd had students who invented their own jutsus before who were younger than that (most notoriously Naruto and his Sexy no Jutsu), nature releases were harder to learn and thus harder to control. That this boy had not only mastered but invented one of his own showed skill. "Could you show it to me again?"

"I guess." The boy looked at Iruka warily. "Why? Are you gonna yell at me again if I don't?"

Iruka shook his head, amused. "I'm just impressed that you've created a nature release at your age, especially one that looks like it could be useful."

"You think so?" the boy perked up at this. "Hey, I could teach you how to do it if you want! It's not hard!"

Iruka smiled back. "I'd be honoured."

Iruka spent the next half-hour or so with the boy learning the jutsu, then practising it and discussing the different applications it could have, both in and out of battle. From there they moved to integrating it into different katas, to see how well it would work.

Iruka was enjoying himself a lot. He and the boy had gotten into a minor competition to see who could make a more elaborate, flashy kata by integrating the fire jutsu. Iruka was just completing and elaborate one, with lots of jumps and spins, altering the ending just a bit by shoving his hand with fingers extended straight over his head with a loud "HYA!" Fire blossomed from his fingertips and shot up in a bloom of orange.

He was startled by a sudden burst of enthusiastic clapping and whoops.

Turning, Iruka saw Naruto and Kakashi, respectively sitting on and leaning against two of the upright logs on the edge of the training ground, watching him.

Naruto was cheering for all he was worth. "Wow, Iruka-sensei, that was AWESOME! You're incredible!"

Kakashi was also looking at the chuunin with mild interest. "Maa… Iruka-sensei, I didn't know you knew any katons."

Iruka wiped his brow, smiling a bit nervously. "I don't not really. He just taught me this-" he started to point to where the boy had been resting by the memorial stone when Iruka started his kata, but stopped when he saw the spot was empty. "Odd, he was there a minute ago." Frowning slightly he turned back to Naruto and Kakashi. "Anyway, I suppose you two want to use the training ground?"

Naruto nodded vigorously, and opened his mouth to speak, but Kakashi cut him off.

"Who did you say showed you that jutsu?"

Iruka tensed a bit at the undercurrent in Kakashi's voice. "Just a boy I've seen a time or two before, probably a genin from a different class."

"And when did he teach you this jutsu?" Kakashi pressed.

Iruka shrugged. "A couple hours ago."

Kakashi's eye narrowed. "That's an awfully short time to master a new nature release."

Iruka almost laughed in relief. "Is that all?" he'd gotten onto slightly better terms with Kakashi in the past months because of Naruto's wanting to spend lots of time with as many of his precious people as possible, but he still didn't really know the masked jounin. He'd probably just misread the situation and thus misunderstood the reason for the other man's suspicion. "It's a relatively simple jutsu, "Iruka explained with a grin, "And the reason I was able to master it so quickly is that I have a fire affinity."

"You have fire for your element?" Naruto had, wonder of wonders, been watching his teachers speak without interrupting, but now he cut in, eyes sparkling. "How come you never use any katons, then? And could you teach me some?"

This time Iruka did laugh. Some things never changed. "It may be my affinity, Naruto, but I don't really know any katons other than the one I just learned."

Naruto looked indignant. "Why not?"

Iruka smiled. "Naruto, you're not the first prankster this village has had. I had a reputation just as impressive as yours when I was younger. No one was willing to teach the prankster of Konoha how to use chakra to make fire. I think they were scared to see what uses I'd put it to."

Naruto looked shocked, and even Kakashi appeared mildly interested. "What did you do about it?" Naruto demanded.

Iruka shrugged. "I practiced the jutsus I was taught and got really good with explosive tags. By the time my prankster reputation was far enough in the past that someone would probably have been willing to teach me, I was busy with missions and learning to be a teacher. And after that, well, I just didn't really think about it."

Naruto folded his arms and frowned. "That's not fair! You should get someone to teach you fire jutsus!"

There was a glint in the blonde's eye that had Iruka's senses prickling. "Naruto, I don't know anyone who-"

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Naruto boomed. "You should teach Iruka-sensei!"

Both men stared at the teenager in front of them.

"Maa… how do you figure that?" Kakashi asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's perfect!" Naruto refolded his arms, smiling in satisfaction. "You know lots of jutsus, so Iruka-sensei can learn a lot from you. And it'll mean you have something to do other than spend time reading Ero-sennin's books, so it'll be good for you too!"

Kakashi had pulled out one of the aforementioned books and begun to read it while Naruto was talking. "No."

Naruto nearly fell off his log in shock. "No?"

"No." Kakashi repeated, turning a page. "I see no advantages in this arrangement for myself."

"You'll be spending time with someone!" Naruto argued, "If you keep spending all your time alone reading those dumb books, you'll end up like Ero-sennin!"

Kakashi turned another page, body language clearly stating that he didn't care.

"Naruto," Iruka tried to reason with his former student, "It's okay. Kakashi-san doesn't have to teach me if he doesn't want to." He couldn't keep all the wistfulness out of his voice, however. He'd enjoyed learning the fire jutsu and he was realizing that he did want to learn more.

Kakashi looked up from his book at Iruka. "Just going to give up so easily, sensei?"

Iruka scowled at him. "I never said that! If I need to I can teach myself – it's not like there aren't any scrolls on the topic."

Kakashi's frown was hidden beneath his mask, but it was evident in his voice. "You can't learn a nature release properly from a scroll."

Iruka snorted. "Of course you can. It's just easier to learn them from a teacher."

"It's more dangerous without one, too," Naruto cut in, "Ero-sennin told me so when I tried to buy a scroll on a futon."

Iruka scowled at Naruto. "I already know that. I'd just have to be careful and practise away from other people until I got the hang of it."

Naruto shook his head. "But you could still get hurt – accidents happen all the time. And it's be all your fault, Kakashi-sensei, because you refused to teach him!"

Kakashi rolled his eye. "While the guilt will no doubt be crushing, somehow I think I'll survive."

Naruto radiated sorrow. "And as a loyal shinobi of Konoha, it'll be my duty to tell Tsunade-baa-chan why the best teacher at the academy can't teach anymore."

Kakashi, who had been turning back to his book, froze.

"I'd have to tell Sakura and Hinata as well," Naruto continued morosely, "And Hinata would probably tell Neji and Hanabi, and Sakura'll tell Lee and Ino. Ino'd probably only tell a few dozen people, but Lee would be okay," Naruto played his ace. "He'd probably only tell Gai-sensei."

Kakashi had been growing a littler paler as Naruto listed off people who would be angry with him if Iruka hurt himself, but the mention of Gai brought him jerking upright and glaring at Naruto. "You wouldn't."

Naruto stared coolly back at him. "I would. It might not be so bad. Baa-chan and Sakura'll _probably_ heal you after pounding you into a paste, and Gai'll get over your Un-Youthful Cruelty after a couple of months, and then it'll only be a matter of getting the rest of the village to talk to you again. You're a jounin, you'd probably survive." He examined his nails. "Or you could just spend some time teaching Iruka-sensei some jutsus. Your choice."

While Kakashi floundered, Iruka put a hand to his chin, as if in thought. "You know, I think I got a scroll or two on katons back when I first learned about them. I couldn't understand them at the time, of course, but I'd probably be able to figure them out now. Besides, how hard could Grand Fireball no Jutsu be?" Normally Iruka was above manipulating his acquaintances like this these days, but if Naruto was going to set things up so beautifully for him, who was he not to give the last little push it needed?

Kakashi's shoulders slumped in defeat. Glaring at his student, he turned sharply to direct his glare at Iruka. "Training ground 6, Saturday mornings at 7. Don't be late." Then he returned his attention to Naruto. "Change in plans. Instead of sparring, we're going to practise evasive manoeuvres, starting now!"

Knowing that he was being dismissed, and not in the mood to press matters further after such a triumph, Iruka quietly left Kakashi throwing kunai at a triumphant Naruto, trying not to smile too hard in excitement.

And, unnoticed from his spot in the trees behind the memorial stone, the boy in orange goggles smirked to himself.

**So yeah, this chapter is longer than the first two – chapter lengths will most likely vary throughout the fic. I'm not going by word-count or number of pages, I'm going by where it feels right to start and stop a chapter. And yes, NaruHina is a side pairing in this fic. I intend to have the side pairings be a mix of het and slash, rather than all one or the other. **

**And yes, I'm making Iruka's elemental affinity fire – usually people make it water, but I think fire actually suits him better and I wanted to be different. I'm also not sure how well people can learn nature releases for elements that they don't have an affinity for – I know it's possible, because Kakashi does it all the time, but I couldn't find a lot of good info on nature releases. I know the basics, like which element trumps what and what the technical names for the different releases are called, but that's about it. Any information or sources of information offered would be vastly appreciated!**

**As to our goggle-wearing ghost and his jutsu… sorry if this stretches the limits too much. My rational for it is that this is an extremely simple jutsu – it requires very little chakra to produce. He was just using a drop or two of chakra. Also, the fact that it's a fire jutsu plays a key role – has anyone else ever heard of ghost fire? He's not going to be using a Grand Fireball no Jutsu or lifting rocks, but little things – lifting a piece of paper, a very simple jutsu or two, seem feasible to me.**

**As to what the jutsu actually does: it produces a very small burst of flames, which get to be maybe the size of a ping-pong ball at the end and has a range of about a foot and a half. If you pump a lot of chakra into it, you could probably produce a tennis-ball sized burst with a five-foot range, but anything more and you'll overload the jutsu. I also really don't have a name for it – my grasp of Japanese is very basic, and I don't know any good online translators that I trust for something like this. Any suggestions would be welcome.**

**In case anyone's wondering, Iruka did see the Uchiha fan on the back of our ghost's jacket, he just hasn't commented on it yet. It will be mentioned next time the two of them interact.**

**And that's chapter 3! Sorry for the lengthy ANs, but I wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page. In the next chapter: Kakashi sulks a bit and the Rookie 9 plus Team Gai makes an appearance!**


	4. Caterpillars and Sleep Deprivation

**AN: Halloooo, everyone! First off, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed chapter 3, with a special shout-out to **unjaundiced**, who was kind enough to provide an excellent break-down on nature releases for me – it was extremely helpful! Many thanks! Second off- (pauses. thinks) Um, actually, that's everything for the moment. So we get to go straight to the story! 8D!**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. And since I'd be more interested in owning Kakashi and Iruka anyway, I find that I am okay with this situation.

Chapter 4: Cute Caterpillars and the Wonders of Sleep Deprivation

Kakashi sulked to himself as he walked down the street. Since when was Naruto so sneaky? And since when was Umino interested in learning jutsus? And from Kakashi of all people?

The copy nin sighed to himself. He'd been promising he'd spend more time with other people when he went to the memorial stone, lately. It would be just like Obito to actually hold him to that promise! But no, Obito wasn't sneaky enough to stick Kakashi in a situation like this… It was more likely that Obito had told sensei, and then _he'd_ orchestrated the whole thing. Yeah, that sounded about right – this situation had the Yellow Flash's fingerprints all over it.

The one thing that bothered Kakashi was the jutsu Iruka had been practising. It had seemed… familiar, like he'd seen it somewhere before, but it wasn't one he'd memorized with the sharingan. Possibly he'd seen it back when he'd had both the eyes he was born with? But that couldn't be right, Umino had said he'd learned it from some kid…

Kakashi shook his head, frustrated. This whole situation was irritating. At least he'd gotten to choose when the lessons would be held. It was petty, he knew, but Kakashi took some satisfaction in knowing that he was cheating the teacher out of one of the only days of the week he probably got to sleep in.

…of course, that also meant that _Kakashi_ would have to get up earlier so he'd have enough time to visit the memorial stone before the lessons. Dang. Well, too late to change the time without looking like an idiot. He'd just have to wait until the teacher was sick of wasting his days off with Kakashi. It shouldn't be too hard to dissuade the man…

Xxx

Iruka was still glowing inside as he made his way back to his apartment and let himself in. Going over to his shelves, he pulled out a couple of slightly dusty scrolls from the back, smirking a bit as he did. He hadn't been _entirely_ truthful with Kakashi. While he _had_ purchased some scrolls back when he learned that his affinity was with fire, Iruka didn't own any scrolls on fire jutsus. Just as no one had wanted to teach him such jutsus, no one had wanted Iruka teaching himself such jutsus, either. The scrolls he had were on the basics you had to learn before you could learn katons, exercises in moulding your chakra the correct way, meditations, groundwork to lay the foundations.

Setting the scrolls on the table next to his satchel of papers that needed grading, Iruka moved to his kitchen to get some supper together.

Xxx

"-and then Iruka-sensei says he thinks he has some scrolls on katons at home and 'besides, how hard can Grand Fireball no Jutsu be?'" Naruto tilted his face up and widened his eyes in an innocent expression.

The rest of the group laughed, with the exception of Sakura, who covered her ears with her hands and mumbled "Too loud."

At once, Lee was looking over at her, concern in his face. "Sakura-chan! Are you all right? Do you need to be escorted home?"

"Nn-uh." Sakura shook her head. " 've gotta be here, 'r els' i' won' be Rookie 9 plus Team Gai. We're alrea'y missin' that duck-headed jerk…" She looked up at Lee and frowned. "Caterpillars." She turned to the rest of the table. "Anyone have a pen? No, wai', jus' 'membered," she reached into her weapons pouch and pulled out a black pen, " 've got one." She turned back to Lee. "Lean down."

The rest of the group watched in confusion as Lee bent over and Sakura began studiously drawing on his forehead with the intense concentration seen only in the truly drunk or the insanely sleep-deprived. After a moment she sat back and nodded. "Much better. They needed antenna."

Ino leaned across the table to try and see what Sakura had done to Lee's face. "What needed antenna, Forehead?"

Sakura scowled. " 'is caterpillars, duh." She pointed at the little upright lines she'd drawn on the ends of Lee's eyebrows. "Can't have caterpillars without antenna – they'd die. An' I don' _want_ Lee's caterpillars t' die! The love Lee's caterpillars! 're cute!" she turned back to Lee again, panic in her face. "You're feeding them, right?"

While Lee assured her that he was taking good care of his 'caterpillars' and feeding them only the finest of leaves, Hinata turned to Naruto with a worried expression.

"Ano, Naruto? What's wrong with Sakura? Has she been drinking?"

Naruto was frowning at his pink-haired teammate, but shook his head. "Nah, 'Baa-san's doing a new training thing with her, how to use chakra to keep awake and alert, because medics need to pull really long hours sometimes."

Hinata's eyes widened a bit. "How long has she been awake?"

He shook his head. "Dunno. About two and a half days, I think."

Hinata winced. She'd pulled long hours during missions, but at those times she'd had aids to help her, like soldier pills, or, at the very least, the adrenaline boost that came from being in a hazardous situation. And even then, she'd never been awake for more than a day and a half at a time. She glanced down the table at Sakura and Lee again. The taijutsu genius was stroking her hair gently with one hand as she snuggled with his arm. Even as Hinata watched, the pink-haired kunoichi's breathing evened and slowed as sleep finally claimed its victory. Hinata nudged Naruto gently in the side and pointed at the couple with a small smile when he looked at her. He grinned and nudged Kiba, who in turn nudged Lee, putting a finger to his lips and pointing down when the older boy turned his way.

Lee's eyes softened when he saw Sakura was asleep, and shifted so that he had her cradled in his arms in a bridal carry before standing and bowing slightly to the rest of the group, speaking in the low tones he only seemed to possess out of the company of his sensei. "I will take Sakura-chan back to her home. I'll return to pay our portion of the bill afterwards."

The others nodded or murmured quiet affirmatives, and Lee made his way carefully out of the restaurant.

Ino sighed as she watched them go. "Seeing those two makes me think sometimes-" she paused to punch Shikamaru, who gave her an irritated look.

"I didn't say anything."

"I could hear you thinking it!" Ino retorted, then continued over Shikamaru's mumbled 'troublesome' as though nothing had happened. "It makes me think that maybe I went after the wrong black-eyed genius. And don't any of you _dare_ tell her I said that!"

No one contradicted her. Sakura and Lee's relationship had slowly grown and blossomed in the three and a half years since Sasuke had left. Lee had gotten over the fanatical devotion he'd had for Sakura since the first chuunin exams but remained fond of her; Sakura had also gotten over her Sasuke obsession.

It had started slowly. Sakura had turned to Lee for a sparring partner when Tsunade began to teach her to use chakra to bolster her strength, as she had been slightly afraid to go to any of her closer friends or classmates, either for fear of hurting them or because their own fighting techniques would make sparring with them counter-intuitive. Lee, always a gentleman, had been happy to acquiesce.

From sparring it grew to going out to get a meal after their practice matches together, and then to 'accidentally' running into each other around various parts of town. Lee had been cautious throughout this time, for while he still liked Sakura quite a lot, he didn't want to play second fiddle to Sasuke. So, while always polite and friendly, he maintained his distance.

In spite of this, their friendship continued to grow. They went on missions, passed their chuunin exams, and progressed further in their fields of expertise. Lee had cheered on enthusiastically when Sakura punched through her first boulder. Sakura had smuggled him spicy curry rice in the hospital to celebrate his first successful A-rank mission, and then scolded him for getting injured and worrying her while he ate it.

And, a few months before Naruto returned from training with Jiraiya, Sakura had asked Lee out for the first time.

Kiba broke the silence that had descended on the group when Lee left carrying Sakura. "So, Iruka-sensei's gonna be training with that lazy jounin of yours?"

"Yup." Naruto nodded.

The silence officially broken, the table began to buzz with questions about Iruka and Kakashi and what Naruto had seen the other day.

"I'd _heard_ that Iruka-sensei was fire affinity, but I didn't really believe it." Tenten snatched an onigiri before Choji could.

"Why not? It suits him." Kiba helped himself to a dumpling off of Lee's plate.

"Because I've also heard that he's secretly captain of ANBU, has a water affinity and is the master of several S-level suitons, and the fourth hokage in hiding." Tenten shrugged. "Lots of rumours fly around in this villages, but only an idiot would believe most of them."

"Iruka-sensei's captain of ANBU _AND_ the fourth hokage?" Naruto burst out, a betrayed expression on his face. "And to think I trusted him! I wonder what else he hasn't told me!"

There was a moment's silence as the ring of friends stared at Naruto.

Naruto stared back, then raised an eyebrow. "It was a **joke**. Anyway, I was there and I helped organize it, so you can be sure it's true when I say Iruka-sensei's affinity is fire and he's going to be learning katons on Saturdays from Kakashi-baka, dattebayo!"

Xxx

The rest of the meal was spent speculating what jutsus Kakashi would teach Iruka and how quickly Iruka would learn and how late Kakashi would be to the lessons and which of the two would kill the other first.

And throughout all this, even when Lee re-joined the group, no one noticed the boy in orange goggles sitting in the empty booth behind them, shamelessly eavesdropping with a wide smile on his face.

**Fun fact: a person is considered to be insane by psychologists if they have gone for three or more consecutive days without sleep. Trust me on this one – two of my best friends are studying to be psychologists, and they've told me this on several occasions. I just wanted to put that out there in case anyone thought I overdid it with Sakura's behaviour. I'd also like to mention on that front that she hasn't just been doing her regular duties and not sleeping – after all, Tsunade's the one teaching her, and I'm sure we all remember how she taught Sakura to dodge. I realise that this chapter mostly revolved around Lee and Sakura and their relationship, but I wanted to get their history out there. Because I really like those two as a couple, but not if Sakura's just using Lee as a replacement and Lee's oblivious to the possibility that this could be occurring. Sorry if you don't like the pairing, but it's not going to really be a big part of the plot, so I hope you can just ignore it and enjoy the rest of the story.**

**Another factoid – Sakura and Lee and Hinata and Naruto are the only definite pairings I have amongst the Rookie 9 plus Team Gai. In my mind Ino's comment was alluding to Sasuke, but if you want to infer that she's talking about someone else, that's fine – it's not going to be coming up in the story anyway (at least, I don't plan for it to at this moment in time – things might change. I doubt it, but they might).**

**The rumours Tenten mentions are a mild poke at all of us out here in the KakaIru community, and all the crazy stuff we come up with in regards to our favourite sensei. Because, when you look at it like that, it does sound kinda ridiculous, and I think we're all mature enough that we can take a bit of light-hearted teasing.**

**Also, now you know where this all is roughly in relation to the canon timeline! Did Pain still invade? Is Akatsuki going to show up in the story? Will Sasuke show up in the story? Psh, bugger if I know. I'm just barely past the section in the manga where they've resurrected Gaara, so I'm pretty shaky on the rest of the events in the original story. I've seen a scattered handful of episodes later in the series, and I've read the occasional chapter, some articles, and lots of fanfics, so my knowledge is limited in this regard. At the moment, everything up until Gai shows up in Konoha carrying Kakashi on his back is canon in this story, unless shown otherwise (such as Lee and Sakura being a couple). I'm not going to make any effort whatsoever to follow the canon storyline, either. Just thought I'd give you all a heads-up on that.**

**And, while this chapter was woefully lacking in any KakaIru interaction, the next chapter should make up for it. Because in the next chapter, we get to the first katon lesson! :) **


	5. Lesson and Experience

**AN: Hallo, everyone! Wow, chapter 5 already! Thanks for all the reviews – I sincerely hope this chapter was worth the wait!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Heck, I haven't even read much fanfic for it lately. …which I should probably start doing again, seeing as that's how I get inspired to work on this fic…**

Chapter 5: The First Lesson and a Grand Experience

Several days later Saturday found Iruka at training ground six at five minutes to seven. He did not expect Kakashi to be early or even on time, but as a teacher he valued punctuality, and held himself to the same standards he held others in this virtue.

However, Iruka was also a practical man, which was why, when Kakashi strolled onto the training ground at nine, he found Iruka sitting calmly on a log putting marks on a paper with a pen. He looked up with a smile as the copy nin approached him.

"Ohayo, Kakashi-sensei. You have excellent timing – I just finished grading the last paper." He capped his pen and tucked both it and the paper away in his satchel before standing up and stretching, smile still firmly in place, and letting out a small grunt of relief as he stretched out the kinks in his muscles. "I must admit, it feels good to have this out of the way – I don't normally get them done this quickly. Now I'll be able to concentrate on your lessons better and enjoy my weekend more!" he positively beamed at Kakashi.

Kakashi stared back, his mask hiding his slightly slack jaw. People got annoyed at Kakashi when he was late – it was a fact of life. They spent the time they waited for him fuming and irritated, and then they blew up at him when he lied about why he was late. It was an entertaining cycle, one which Kakashi enjoyed. He'd activated the cycle today purposefully to aggravate the chuunin school-teacher. Using the time spent waiting for Kakashi to be productive, to be in such a sunny mood when the jounin arrived… that was _cheating_!

And the chuunin was still standing there, smiling at him!

Kakashi gave himself a mental shake and pulled himself together. Umino was unpredictable, that was all. Kakashi had seen the teacher go from neutral to raging in less than a minute on numerous occasions, which often coincided with Kakashi turning in his mission reports, actually. Anyway, all this was beside the point. He'd planned his course of action for the katon lessons. Kakashi intended to put some effort into the first few lessons, then carefully taper off the effort until Umino got frustrated and quit. It was vitally important that the academy teacher quit on his own, without prompting. That way Naruto couldn't carry out his threat.

However, there was still the matter of the smiling chuunin in front of him. How to deal with this…

"Maa… we'll be starting with some basic warm-ups." Kakashi said as he walked to the middle of the field. For social situations, Kakashi's tried and true solution was: when in doubt, ignore it.

Iruka calmly followed the jounin.

Xxx

If someone, say, a 13-year-old sized boy dressed mainly in dark blue with orange trim, had happened to be watching from behind some convenient rocks close enough to observe without being observed, they would have seen the two men sit down halfway between the training logs and the river, the smaller man paying close attention to the words of his companion. They'd have seen the taller man giving his companion some instructions and the two of them work on some minor chakra exercises for about an hour. If the person watching had been observant, they would have noticed that the tall man was growing more and more agitated as the second hour passed. And anyone watching would have seen it when the tall man finally gave in to his frustrations.

Unfortunately, Naruto was busy running a C-rank delivery mission at the time, and Konohamaru was practising modifying various jutsus with his friends, so there wasn't a living soul in Konoha bold enough to spy on Kakashi and Iruka's first lesson together.

Xxx

Iruka sighed as he closed the door to his apartment and leaned on it. Despite the good start the lesson had had, it hadn't ended well, as could be attested to by the scent of smoke that still wafted off of the teacher. He could only thank whatever power it was that had prompted him to leave his satchel full of school papers on the other side of the training ground, and that Kakashi had chosen a training ground next to a river. Otherwise things might have gotten out of hand.

As it was, they had _both _learned valuable lessons about fire release training, losing one's temper, and why the two should never occur in conjunction with each other off of the battlefield…

Iruka sighed again and headed towards the living room, dropping his thankfully-unharmed satchel on the table. Maybe he _should_ just get some scrolls on basic katons. It'd probably be less frustrating, and it was doubtful that Kakashi would be willing to give teaching him another go. The thought of this saddened Iruka, and only partially because it meant no more help learning katons. Over the years since Kakashi had become Naruto's jounin-sensei, Iruka had been listening to his former student's complaints about the copy nin, along with stories of team 7's exploits. Being the shinobi he was, Iruka had heard the at first grudging and then more open admiration and respect Naruto held for the man, indicating that there was more to him than had been indicated during their initial meeting at the chuunin exam. He'd seen brief glimpses of this person Naruto respected over the past months as Naruto threw them into social situations together.

So, while he regretted the loss of aid in his learning, what Iruka regretted more was the lost chance the lessons had offered for him to get to know this man who had helped shape Naruto's life for the better.

"Ah well," Iruka shrugged as he made his way towards his bathroom to wash the scent of smoke off of himself, "It was wishful thinking. Why would Kakashi want to get to know me better anyway?"

Talking aloud to oneself was a dangerous habit for a ninja, and one that was both warned against and discouraged, but Iruka felt secure enough to be doing so in the privacy of his own home. And, indeed, he would have been perfectly fine if the boy in the orange goggles hadn't been watching him through a crack in the kitchen door the entire time.

Xxx

Kakashi waited until he'd teleported home to check and see if his eyebrow was still there. It might have been seen as vain, but when you depend on one eyebrow for fifty percent of your facial expression, it tends to get a higher placement on your priorities list than eyebrows usually did. In hindsight, using Grand Fireball no Jutsu as a starting point after the warm-ups had been a bad idea. Allowing himself to get irritated because a chuunin had been unperturbed by Kakashi's tardiness had also been an error – he was a jounin. What did he care if a shinobi of a lower rank got the better of him? That would be a direct violation of rule 25. Insulting the man after Umino had pointed out that Kakashi hadn't bothered to ask what the man's current level of proficiency was had been unprofessional, and teaching him Grand Fireball no Jutsu just so he could be smug when the chuunin flubbed it in an effort to get back at Umino for being overly reasonable had been in poor taste.

Especially when the teacher demolished the target Kakashi had set up with a 3-foot fireball on his first try.

The lesson had sort of devolved into a free-for-all sparring match after that for reasons Kakashi was uncertain of, and which likely had nothing to do with Kakashi making some rather snide comments after the target got demolished.

The most surprising thing had been that Umino had kept the pace Kakashi set. He wasn't as fast as the copy nin, and Kakashi was obviously more skilled, but the chuunin hadn't been breathing any harder than him when they had stopped. And he'd been surprisingly ingenious with his tactics – far more so than a Kakashi would have expected from a man who was constantly drilling with basic forms.

In short, Kakashi had failed to look underneath the underneath in respect to the teacher when he planned the lesson, and it irked him. Which was why Kakashi was going to be paying a visit to the records office that week. Because he was _going_ to find out why the teacher had been so un-teacher-ish, even if it killed him. Though that was unlikely. He _was_ the copy nin, after all.

The boy with orange goggles was not there to see Kakashi clench his fist and swear to Mr. Ukki that he was going to find out the truth about Umino Iruka, no matter what, because he was busy spying on the aforementioned chuunin at the time. But, if he had been there, no doubt he would have been rubbing his hands together and sporting the evil smile of one whose plans are going along perfectly.

Xxx

**Before I get to the explanation section of this AN, I'd like to put a call out for katons people think would be appropriate for future lessons. I had a look at some over the summer, but I've had a terrible time figuring out what Iruka should learn next (either from Kakashi or a scroll). Original katons are fine, and I will give a shout-out to the creator of the jutsu in the ANs. My only request is that people keep suggested jutsus at chuunin level – no jounin or S-class stuff. My hearty thanks to anyone who helps out with this.**

**Some of you might be wondering why our hot-tempered Iruka didn't flip out at Kakashi for being late, or even grumble about it. Just to reassure you, he's not being OOC – he's being aggressively cheerful and sneakily passive-aggressive.**

**One of the common things that we all seem to assume about Iruka is that he's got extremely good chakra control. It makes sense to me – a teacher in his situation would need to have excellent chakra control so that his students wouldn't learn sloppy techniques off of him and so they could see exactly what they're supposed to be doing. I'm using this, and the fact that he's an adult, to explain why he learned how to do Grand Fireball no Jutsu so quickly. I'd also like to mention that 3 feet is about the largest fireball he can create with the technique at the moment – with time and practice he'll be able to make larger ones, but he's still a beginner.**

** As to why Iruka was able to keep up with Kakashi in terms of physical exertion… I was looking at the official stats for the various Naruto characters over the summer – just for fun – and I noticed that Kakashi and Iruka had exactly the same score for stamina. Which I thought was too cool for words (because I am a strange, **_**strange**_** little person who delights in odd things), and wanted to include it in the story somehow. Thus, while Kakashi's gonna reach the finish line first in a race and if obviously a more skilled shinobi (chuunin vs. jounin), they're going to wear out after about the same amount of physical exertion.**

** And in the next chapter: Iruka gets to be teachery, and the Konohamaru-corps make a reappearance!**


	6. Note from the author

**Hi, everyone. I wanted to let all of you know that there won't be a new chapter of ****Ghostly Connections**** up this month – mostly because my professors seem to think February is the perfect month to assign large, research-intensive projects in (well, one professor, at least, but it's a real doozey of a project she's assigned us…), and partially due to the fact that I've just never gotten the hang of Februarys. Anyways, the fact is, I'm bogged down in work and just not feeling inspired or energetic enough to get the next chapter typed up. My sincerest apologies. **

**I'd like to make it clear that I am not abandoning this story – the next several chapters are written, they're just in my writing books as opposed to on my computer, and I have ideas for future chapters, I just haven't had the inspiration necessary to turn them into plot yet. So again, many apologies and, with any luck, I'll see you next month.**

**Tie-dyed Trickster**


	7. Lessons of Many Sorts

**AN: (Appears with a poof of smoke and a flourish) Hallo, everyone! Did you miss me? Sorry, I know this chapter is over a month late. This term at university has been ridiculously busy, and I've been working my hardest just to keep on top of school-work and such. The work did pay off- the huge project I had in February was magnificent upon its completion, and I got a very good grade on it. Thanks to everyone who sent me encouraging notes and promises of patience, and sorry for making you wait so long. Hopefully this chapter will be worth the wait.**

**Disclaimer: Naruto… is not mine. Which is good, because otherwise the manga'd probably have taken even longer to come out…**

Chapter 6: In Which Lessons of Many Sorts are Encountered

"-which is why you need to keep your wrist straight when throwing kunai." Iruka finished drawing a diagram on the board and turned back to his class, "Does anyone have any questions?"

Several hands popped into the air, including Konohamaru's.

Iruka bit back a sigh and decided to get it over with. "Yes, Konohamaru-kun?"

Konohamaru sat forward in his seat eagerly. "Did Kakashi-san teach you any cool katons at your lesson?"

Iruka blinked. "Where did you-" his mind supplied him the answer at almost the exact moment Konohamaru stated matter-of-factly, "The boss told me about it on Friday! How come you're taking classes, sensei?"

The rest of the class nodded and made small sounds of agreement with the boy's question. Most of them were under the impression that, as a teacher, Iruka knew pretty much _everything_. The possibility that Iruka needed any lessons was not compatible with this concept. They were all _very_ interested in Iruka's answer.

Iruka knew this, and also that he would be pestered about it until his class got their answers. "I had a lesson with Hatake-san because I never had the opportunity to study nature releases properly when I was younger and he was gracious enough to offer to help me learn about them now."

The class was stunned.

"But Iruka-sensei," one boy burst out, "You're a _teacher_!"

"And because of that I shouldn't need to take lessons, right?" Iruka smiled ruefully at his student. "Just because I'm a teacher doesn't mean I know everything- there's always something new to learn. Admitting to this is actually a good thing, because it means I'm open to new ideas. In this case, it means I had an opportunity to learn more about a subject I've always had an interest it."

There were some nods around the classroom. That made sense.

Hanabi put her hand up. With some curiosity, Iruka called on her.

The young Hyuuga's face was serious and her tone was inquiring. "You said you had an opportunity, Iruka-sensei. Are you not continuing with your lessons?"

Iruka winced. Hanabi was as observant as her older sister and cousin, but unlike them she had no qualms about sharing these observations with others. "Hatake-san is a busy shinobi – he is a jounin of the Leaf. He only had time for the one lesson, and it was very kind of him to do even that. Now, does anyone have any questions about kunai?"

Xxx

Lunchtime found the Konohamaru Corps gathered around a tree in the playground. Hanabi had joined them, something that had been happening more and more often since she'd led the class out of the forest while Konohamaru carried Iruka. Before that event she had dismissed the boy and his friends as foolish trouble-makers, but afterwards she had been curious and decided to learn more about them. It had been an unexpected but pleasant development when she realised she was enjoying the time she spent with the other children. She felt comfortable in their presence.

Which was why she had no qualms about saying exactly what was on her mind as they opened their bentos. "I don't think Iruka-sensei is happy about having only had one lesson."

Konohamaru paused from attacking an eggroll and glanced at her. "There wasn't supposed to be only one lesson. The boss told me – Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-san were supposed to be meeting each other for lessons on Saturday for awhile."

Udon sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "So why did they only have one lesson, if there were supposed to be more?"

"I bet they had a fight!" Moegi popped a bit of pickle in her mouth and chewed enthusiastically. "Though I don't see why sensei's so disappointed about it – he's smart enough that he could probably learn anything he needs to on his own!"

The group paused to consider this train of thought. Hanabi was the first to break it, speaking slowly as if testing each word for flaws. "Maybe Iruka-sensei likes Kakashi-san, and was hoping to spend more time with him this way?"

Konohamaru and Moegi gaped at her. "You mean _likes him_ likes him?" Moegi squealed.

Hanabi nodded solemnly. "They usually sit together when Naruto invites them both out to eat, and every time I've been in the mission room with them Kakashi-san makes sure to hand his report in to Iruka-sensei."

Moegi and Konohamaru turned to Udon, the logistics specialist of the group. Udon thought for a moment, then looked at Hanabi. "But Iruka-sensei usually yells at Kakashi-san at those times. How does that fit into your theory?"

"Sexual tension." Hanabi responded promptly. She wasn't entirely sure what the term meant, but it was frequently used in the stash of novels Hinata hid in her bedroom. Hanabi had found them by accident one day when Hinata had been out on a mission and had taken a look to see just what it was her sister had taken such care to hide.

While she didn't quite understand why her sister hid the books, Hanabi had seen why she read them. They were rather good. A little sentimental, but good. Her favourite was called Heart of the Warrior by Rikoona Hikigaeru. She had originally thought the books had no bearing on real life, but as she got older she had realized that the books actually held some lessons on a very useful, interesting subject.

Romance.

Udon pondered her response for a moment, then nodded his acceptance of her logic. Moegi's expression became excited.

Konohamaru looked determined. "If that's the case, then we need to fix things between Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-san. Because Iruka-san deserves to be happy." He turned to Hanabi, the group's newly, silently, and unanimously voted relationships expert. "Any ideas how we do this?"

Hanabi pursed her lips slightly and began to formulate a plan.

Xxx

**Yup, Hanabi's hanging around with the Konohamaru Corps – I like how she functions with the group. I'd also like to mention that, as of the moment, neither Kakashi nor Iruka are even remotely considering being in a relationship with each other. Iruka, as mentioned in the last chapter, wants to know more about a person that has had a strong influence on Naruto; Kakashi wants to know what he doesn't know about a man he previously thought to be rather naïve and good only for teasing with poor-quality mission reports. The romance at the moment is entirely in the heads of the kids.**

**I'm still open to suggestions for katons, by the way. Also, kudos to anyone who figures out the hidden joke in the section about Hinata's romance novels!**

**And in the next chapter: Iruka encounters Naruto, and Anko makes an appearance!**


End file.
